?'8o4. Co^ifideraitofis on Reguhtifig the Value cf Labour. ^xc 



fame. The flate roof, and the fadi windows — the freeftonc 

 front, and the plaftered ceiling, have often procured for the 

 landlord, one or two iliiliings more per ncrt; than he would have 

 ^ot, if the mofs-orrown thatch, the bolflered li«^ht-hole, or the 

 -wooden lintel, had decorated the more rullic cottage of his farm; 

 and that, too, fuppofing that the land might have been as well 

 •tilled while the tenant lived in the lartt-r, as if lie had inhabited 

 the former. A good hoiafe, tlierefore, on a piece of wafte land, 

 ti£ls as a premium to its improvement ; and no better kind of 

 premium can be devifed. People will then cultivate the land 

 around it, which, without it, would not have attra61cd their la- 

 bour ', and, for the fame reafon, w ill give an increafcd rent for 

 the land, becaufe they are more comfortably fituated. There- 

 fore, the outlay of money in fiich buildings, has an immediate 

 efTc6l in railing the rent of land; and thus returns a profit to 

 the landlord, equal perhaps to good iiiterell for the fum. We 

 do not, however, always difcriminate properly the true caufes of 

 an increafe of rent. 



But befides thi« immediate efFe(3: — the remote profits to which 

 I formerly alluded, will be objects of greater importance -, for 

 the fame advantages will accrue to the farmer, in the profecu- 

 tion of his trade, from a good Heading of farm buildings, as 

 •will accrue to any manufaci:urer from the adoption or invention 

 of any new machine for abridging, facilitating, or expediting 

 labour, or for improving the nature and quality of the article 

 he produces, and confequently increafing the profit he derives 

 from it, by extending the marker, and augmenting the de- 

 mand. 



With regard to the prefent high price of (killed labo-ar in the 

 Flighland counties, complained of as fuch an oppreflion, and 

 lamented over as fo great an evil, I mult confefs I fee no caufe 

 for furprife. It is a natural confequen<:e of the peculiar cir- 

 cumilances which have -attended the fituation of that country — 

 an event which every man of refle6lion mud have anticipated ; 

 and which, fo far from being the herald of approaching ruin, 

 is in itfelf the mod decihve proof of an increafing profperity. 

 Several circumftances may be pointed out, which have contri- 

 buted to enhance the value of Ikilled labour, — in mentionmg 

 which, we may not only explain its resl caufes, but alfo dimi- 

 nifli the dread of its evil effects. 



Inequalities in the nature of different employments, lay the 

 foundation of correfponding inequalities in the profiits they af- 

 ford -, and when exilting in the fame employment, they muft 

 alfo occafion aditTerence in the proportion of its rewards. Tlicfj; 

 i.'^equalities may be of a local, temporary, or accidental nature ; 



R 3 ' »d4 



